Electro-Acupuncture Affects the Activity of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Ovary Axis in Female Rats

Discussion Over the past decades, EA has been widely applied for treating human reproductive disorders or for studies regarding with menstruation, ovulation, implantation, and the onset of labor, while these diseases are closely related with the dysregulation of the HPO axis (Mo et al., 1993; Chen, 1997; Stamou et al., 2015; Xiong et al., 2015). However, there are little published data with regard to the effect of EA on the activity of whole HPO axis in physiological animals or human, and the molecular cues responsible for these dynamic morphological changes have not been elucidated so far. Our findings demonstrated that EA treatment on bilateral SP6 and ST36 acupoints induced hormonal fluctuations of HPO axis in physiological rats. These fluctuations specifically manifested in elevated levels of GnRH in hypothalamus, a sudden decreased and then increased levels of FSH and LH, an delayed alterations of serum E2 and P4 levels, and the contrary alterations of serum PGE2 and NE levels after EA treatment. Studies have demonstrated that different acupoints possess specific effects; different acupoints would activate corresponding central neural regulatory circuits (Cui et al., 2017; Li et al., 2017). In the present study, we have chosen the SP6 and ST36 acupoints, since these two acupoints have been usually set for studies on endocrine disorder or reproductive syndrome (Chen, 1997; Ho et al., 2009; Gao et al., 2013; Wang et...
Source: Frontiers in Physiology - Category: Physiology Source Type: research